A Touch of Fog

Now that it's not cool anymore here are MY fog pictures which are much better than anyone else's and not from last year either.  I took these biking around the sea wall of Stanley park during those foggy days we had in mid-October.  I like the one below because of the heron in shadow.

This one was taken the exact same time as the one above just looking towards the bridge to Deadman's Island.  Fog is so changeable.  There is so many different plays of light, shadow and mist. In one spot it can be very sunny and than the other way all shrouded.

I had to do something artsy.  I figured the Lion's Gate bridge which is hidden in the fog shot through a dew spotted spider web would do it.  I also did the same shot but with the web in focus.  I love biking around the park this time of year. I do it fairly early in the morning and have the path all to myself really.  I see lots of cool wildlife too: bald eagles, snowgeese, flickers, otters, mink..... I hope some more fog comes in soon. 

Waved Albatross!

Albatross! These are all Waved Albatross that live only in the tropics of Peru and Ecuador.  We saw these in the Galapagos on Espanola Island.  They are medium sized albatrosses.  To me they seemed pretty big. They can glide for hours without flapping their wings as the one below is showing.

They greet their partners and other albatross by clattering their beaks against the others. They can also live up to 45 and maybe even 50 years.  Courtship is intricate which much bowing, beak clattering and oo-oo calls. I find Albatross humeri very interesting because in length and vague overall look they resemble a human humerus.

There were many half grown chicks going into their adult feathers.  The one below looks quite mangy as he still has lots of chick down but you can see on the back and wings the adult feathers coming through. The parents regurgitate over 4 pounds of fish oil a day to feed the young.

Siwash Rock Underwater Time Lapse

So after alot of testing, retesting, buying the right equipment, re-testing and fails Geordie and I did it!  We have an underwater time lapse!  It worked out incredibly well especially for a first time outing where we really didn't what to expect. There were so many variables that could screw it up.  Large waves, odd tides - though we checked the weather and tide tables.  Also people horsing around with it or even stealing it. Geordie hid it but it was visible from a very public path.  It is obvious in the video where we set it down.  It is facing Stanley Park's Siwash Rock on the mussel beds.  We had to be careful minimizing our ecosystem impact gingerly climbing over the little shells to set it down and then pick it up.

Here are two stills taken from the timelapse.  We caught in several places schools of small fish.  I don't know what kind.  I was really hoping to get a crab or starfish crawling over it but no luck.  This area is usually crawling with starfish but something is killing them off and this spot was completely bereft of them.

I love the rainbow and the gods rays refracting through the water.  The light highlights the mussels and kelp in a glorious way. I hope you enjoyed these photos and timelapse.  Geordie and I are brainstorming ideas where to set it down so if you have your own thought of a good underwater spot please let us know.  It just has to be accessible by foot and relatively easy to hide.

BCIT - First Month In

 So its been a full month since I decided to trade in a regular paycheck for a backpack of books and the hope that a few years from now it will all be worth it. Thus far BCIT has been a very good experience even if I am 8-15 years older than most everyone else in my class. The campus itself is nice without being sprawling and the majority of our classes are in a handful of buildings, so after the first week of disorientation passed it has been pretty easy to find my way around.

 The classes are divided into lectures and labs with lectures taking place in large halls like the one shown below. The finance intake for the year was several hundred students so we are divided into 'sets' of around 30 people. Lectures will contain 4-6 different sets and labs are more focused on a single set with more attention and back-and-forth with the teacher. Labs are typically in small classrooms which I have skipped a picture of since they are identical to any classroom you've ever had in your life. And yes, I am a big nerd and sit in the first few rows of every class, so this photo is not my typical perspective on lectures ;)

The first words out of the Deans mouth on the first day were "midterms are just 5 weeks away" and we've already had a number of high-stakes tests and midterms with 2 more to go in the coming week. So far I think I have done well on all the tests and I'm keeping my head above water with my reading and homework. Its nice that I can focus on my studies and not work until summer since the courseload is pretty heavy but there are a few people in my set working 20+ hours a week who I do not envy much.